TV Recaps

Episode 2 of The Madison is a little weaker than the pilot, if you ask me. Not by a big stretch, granted, but there has to be a trade-off to less Kurt Russell, even though he keeps showing up in flashbacks, and here it’s a little forward momentum.

It’s very hard to consider The Madison as a spin-off of Yellowstone, which is sort of what it has been advertised as. Part of a tie-in triple-threat also comprising Marshals and The Dutton Ranch, Taylor Sheridan’s deeply contemplative neo-Western Montanaverse is certainly expanding, but if Episode 1 of this show is anything to go by, it’s also diversifying.

Okay, we’re definitely doing the Mickey and Boone thing. Sheriff Country has been beating about the bush in that regard for weeks, but now that...

There’s always a bit of an eerie quality to real-life parades and celebrations being targeted, so Boston Blue is treading quite a thin line in...

I suspect that jetting around the world hunting crazy serial killers is pretty high-stress, as far as jobs go, but even by the usual standards,...

There’s basically no monster action in Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, which you should probably be aware of. It’s fine, though, since you can have too much of a good thing. Season 2 only has a limited budget, and Episode 3, “Secrets”, is all about putting in the emotional, character-driven groundwork that is going to make the inevitable monster action later feel more resonant.

Everybody has a breaking point, and The Pitt Season 2 has hit the stage where several characters are experiencing theirs at the same time. Episode 10 has mommy issues on multiple fronts, terrible bedside manner, petty squabbling, another godforsaken degloving injury, assisted suicide, a missing leg, a missing son, and even more foreshadowing about Robby's inevitable motorcycle-related demise. Where to even begin?

And there it is, folks. The big twist! Or the nearest The Last Thing He Told Me Season 2 can get to one of those, anyway, which admittedly isn't saying much.

It’s probably best to think of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy Episode 9 as the first half of a two-part finale, since “300th Night” certainly has that feel about it. School’s out. The Academy freshmen are due to graduate, and they plan to travel to Betazed with the rest of the fleet to see in the official designation of the planet as the Federation’s new capital. What could possibly go wrong?

We’re almost there, folks. And based on Episode 7, “Winnow”, there probably aren’t that many surprises remaining in Cross Season 2. Sampson’s subplot seems to be rather unceremoniously wrapped up here; Rebecca’s revenge plot has only one logical place that it can really go, and Kayla seems to have deduced who Mastermind is and sent Bobby Trey to tie up the loose end.

You can’t say I didn’t tell you so. In hindsight, it was obvious that Shrinking Season 3 was going to pull the trigger on a major tragedy, and Maya was an obvious candidate. Gaby rebuffing her – entirely understandably! – was a death knell.

Only one episode ago, I was saying that One Piece Season 2 utilising flashbacks was something of a novelty, so Episode 7 makes me look pretty stupid, since it’s virtually all flashbacks. But who’s complaining? “Reindeer Shames” is probably the best episode of the season, a truly lovely hour of storytelling and impressive special effects that is both wrenchingly sad and powerfully hopeful.

It occurred to me during Episode 6 of One Piece Season 2 that this is the rare show that doesn’t overindulge in flashbacks. Not that flashbacks are inherently a bad thing, obviously, especially not when something like Paradise exists. But this show’s unwillingness to rely on them is especially apparent here, since “Nami Deerest” uses them quite a lot, and it ends up feeling like a bit of a welcome novelty.

Now, this is more like. After basically sacrificing the previous episode to set up this one, One Piece Season 2 delivers pretty well on the...

The weakest hour of One Piece Season 2 thus far, Episode 4 isn’t bad, by any means, but it’s the first chapter to feel like...

The great novelty of One Piece is that it’s a show of profound, fantastical imagination, all stretchy arms and double cigars and guns in powdered...

There’s nothing inherently amusing about being swallowed by a gigantic sea creature, but it’s probably a testament to the quality of One Piece that it...

Here’s an interesting thought. The first season of Netflix’s live-action One Piece adaptation only adapted the first major story arc and completely left out a...